Valentine Talks About Sierra, PEDs

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While speaking to radio station WFAN in New York on Thursday, former Texas Rangers manager Bobby Valentine, always capable of grabbing headlines with his words, said something pretty interesting.

Turns out, Valentine said, he suspected former Rangers outfielder Ruben Sierra of using PEDs as far back as the mid-1980s, before PED usage became the norm in the Jose Canseco/Mark McGwire days.

Valentine told the radio station that Sierra came to spring training one year looking much different than he had the previous season, and to his knowledge, Sierra wasn't the type of guy to put in tons of hours in the gym, which raised a red flag.

"My first thought or inkling was back in the mid '80s, when Ruben Sierra came to spring training and he had gained 30 pounds over the winter and I didn't think he was a big weight lifter," Valentine told The Fan. "So I tried to figure it out and investigate it. And then people told me it wasn't some place I should be, so I never even looked again. And it was never brought up."

Valentine declined to say who told him to stay out of the matter and he managed Sierra from 1986-1992.

Sierra finished his 20-year career with 306 home runs, and hit a career-high 30 home runs as a 21-year-old in 1987 with the Rangers.